A Civilization Sails Poem by Fleance Candide

A stallion of the sea
Stalks the emerald waters
Of perfumed Caribbean;
Walks the lily-white crest
Of a tumbling, bumbling
Wave from wild western shore.

Sunny gold sailors sing
To the wooden wanderer
Who humbles heaven’s chariot -
A great gliding galleon
Forever churning; turning
‘Cross the axes of the globe.

A green sea gasps!
Fire lies twinkling on horizon
Lilting like a lover’s call -
‘Smitten captain blunders,
Stumbling, crumbling onto
Hidden mineral fangs.

A mighty Spanish hull,
Tar coat thick, ruptures
‘Neath a jagged spike
Stabbing from the sunken depths.
Starboard goes, water flows,
Caught by rocky tooth and claw.

Men, half-blind, dive as gulls
Into the bubbling cauldron
Of ocean’s sedent’ry spite.
A masthead giant
Rips its neck. Clips the deck.
Plunges into boiling broth.

In steaming tropical sea
Horse and rider scream atop
The jaws of gaping serpent -
Swallows the ill-got cargo
Of match-stick ships. Licks its lips.
A monster in the murk.

But survivors sally forth
Paddling ‘midst the froth.
Under the native glare
Of tiny sunshine pebbles
They disperse from floating hearse
Free at last to plunder.